Method to generate airgaps with a template first scheme and a self aligned blockout mask and structure

ABSTRACT

A structure and method to produce an airgap on a substrate having a dielectric layer and copper interconnects with sublithographic perforations therein which are ordered throughout the wafer structure in a macro level and a micro level with no change in order orientation and the top layer of the copper interconnects are not exposed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a divisional application of co-pending application Ser. No. 11/518,773 filed on Sep. 11, 2006.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of producing air gap-containing metal-insulator interconnect structures for Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) and Ultra-Large Scale Integrated (ULSI) devices and such structures.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are many known techniques for lowering the effective dielectric constant for the dielectrics used in semiconductor devices, however most of these methods suffer from several drawbacks including poor mechanical strength. This poor mechanical strength results in reliability issues in the final device.

For example, one methodology for creating insulator voids (gaps, airgaps, etc.) in dielectric materials embedded in multilevel integrated interconnect structures to lower the effective dielectric constant includes the combination of supra lithographic plus sub-lithographic masking to create selectively blocked-out nanocolumns or airgaps in an already-built wiring level as disclosed in US2005/0167838A1. The method includes at least one layer of a block out mask and a layer of diblock copolymer which forms tiny self assembled perforations (200A in a polymeric matrix which are then transferred into the underlying dielectric to create a nanocolumnar structure. Further, ways to isotropically increase column or gap size underneath a perforated mask, such that larger gaps could be made without impacting rapid pinch off are described. However, problems exist with this method. For example, it is not readily practicable for larger dimension copper wiring levels. When supra-lithographic block out shapes are combined with a self assembled layer to create a sublithographic nanocolumnar structure, significant areas of the copper interconnect surfaces are exposed to etch, strip, and wet clean processes through the nano-sized perforated perforations in the cap. Although these perforations may be plugged by the subsequent pinchoff deposition of an additional cap dielectric material, there may be excessive copper sputtered through the perforations, and possibly integration defects associated with these copper and copper/cap interface exposures. Another potential problem is scaling to very large dimension wiring levels due to increased aspect ratios for nanocolumn etching, assuming the sublithographic mask perforations could not be scaled accordingly. Finally, such method requires two cycles of mask apply, develop, and reactive ion etching for the diblock and blockout pattern transfer.

A different method for forming an airgap is described in US 2006/0183315 (Ser. No. 10/906,267) using electron-beam and UV radiation to selectively damage the SiCOH interlayer dielectric. A blockout mask limits exposure to the electron-beam or UV such that only the areas not covered by the blockout mask get exposed to the radiation with the result that the exposed regions of the dielectric are demethylated and are thus rendered etchable However, the main drawback of this method is that the depth and extent to which the UV or the electron-beam demethylates damages the SiCOH dielectric and the damaged dielectric may extend all the way to the depth of the trench.

An etchback process is disclosed in Integration of a 3 Level Cu—SiO2 Air Gap Interconnect for Sub 0.1 micron CMOS Technologies (2001 Proc. IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conference, 2001, pages 298-300, Arnal et al.) wherein a full trench is etched through a lithographic mask into the underlying dielectric. A pinch-off airgap is then formed during the deposition of the next level of dielectric. This method has several drawbacks including problems of excess topography in the next level after dielectric deposition which requires added chemically-mechanically polished touchup or changes to the interlayer dielectric process as well as excess redeposition in airgaps, and in the extreme, pinch-off points which are so high that they can interfere with trenches on the subsequent wiring level. Additionally, in this method, there will be situations where there are several levels of dielectric and pinch-off airgap that can be stacked on top of each other without any intervening compressive film to break up the buildup of tensile stress with the result that this structure is mechanically unstable. Finally, this method does not scale well with shrinking dimensions and airgaps at the thin wire level using aggressive shrink factors and cannot easily be fabricated using it due to the fact that there will be exposed copper along the entire length of an interconnect during the etchback resulting in electromigration failures during reliability stressing.

Thus there exists a need for an airgap method which limits exposed copper during etching and in some cases eliminates it. A further need exists for an airgap method where pinch-off heights are limited such that the trench bottoms from the subsequent level do not intersect the pinch-off gaps.

There further exists a need for an airgap structure where there is no build-up of topography after the subsequent level dielectric deposition. Another need exists for an airgap structure where there is no build-up of tensile dielectric or airgap without compressive films to interrupt the build up of the gaps and tensile stress areas. There further exists a need for an airgap method where the depth of the gap is not limited by limitations of etch due to high aspect ratios.

A need further exists for an airgap method where the depth of the gap is not limited by the depth to which the dielectric can be demethylated and thus rendered etchable. Additionally, a need exists for a streamlined airgap method with less masking and etching steps per wiring level while still ensuring that the gaps can be made at thin wire levels which are close to the transistor as well as “fat” wires which reside at the upper levels of the interconnect scheme in a hierarchical structure.

These needs and many others are met by a process for producing airgaps on a substrate using the inventive method which uses a self aligned template with sub and supra lithographic perforations within a blockout mask and the structure. Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a process flow of the present invention for generating airgaps.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of alternate perforation shapes of a mask of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a representation of tolerance considerations for block out and gap image sizes of a mask of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is alternate process flows of the present invention for generating airgaps.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The invention includes a method to produce an airgap on a substrate comprising a dielectric layer on the substrate, a pattern transferred onto the dielectric layer using a self aligned block out mask which prevents etch of the dielectric layer in the blockout regions

A further embodiment of the inventive method includes depositing dielectric having interconnects on a substrate, a cap layer, a sacrificial antireflective coating layer, a sacrificial resist layer, applying a lithographic blockout mask having a perforation pattern which does not overly the interconnects, transferring the perforation pattern, extracting the dielectric layer between the interconnects, depositing a second dielectric layer, and pinching-off the second dielectric layer.

The invention also is a wafer containing an airgap interconnect structure including a substrate with a dielectric cap layer and an interconnect with spaces, and perforations in the cap layer and spaces between the interconnect.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is an air gap-containing metal-insulator interconnect structure for VLSI and ULSI devices and a method for producing same A conventional lithographic mask is used which has specific and carefully defined perforation openings as well as blockout shapes to cover areas where gaps or perforations are not desired.

A process flow for the method of this invention is shown in FIG. 1. The wafer 100 includes a substrate and dielectric material 110. The desired metal-insulator dual damascene interconnect level 120 which needs to be gapped is built all the way up to the deposition of the dielectric cap 130 using methods known in the art. Following this, an optional hard mask layer which could act as a resist poisoning layer if needed is deposited. An antireflective coating and a resist layer may be deposited directly on the cap layer or the hard mask layer if it is present. Subsequently, a blockout mask 140 is used to pattern the resist layer. In the blockout mask, the perforations 150 are in the shape of perforations, rectangles, squares, other shapes and combinations thereof and are at locations where the underlying metal shapes are not present. FIG. 2 shows some non-limiting examples of perforation shapes of a mask of the present invention. In order to minimize or eliminate the exposure of copper during the subsequent etchback steps, the size of the perforations is tailored in such a way that the perforations have at least one dimension smaller than the interline spacing.

FIG. 3 shows the considerations that go into choosing the size of the perforations and these include the overlay tolerance for the optical lithography of the blockout mask and variations in perforation as well as interconnect wire critical dimension (CD). The perforations can be placed at any suitable distance away from each other and in any pattern that is desired but are preferably placed in an hexagonal close packed (HCP) pattern to maximize the open area while still ensuring that the spaces between perforations are substantial enough to provide more than adequate mechanical reinforcement of the cap into which these perforations will be subsequently transferred. The blockout mask is applied via known lithography methods.

After lithography, a blockout mask pattern with perforations is transferred into the underlying cap material. The pattern may be transferred all the way into the underlying dielectric as shown in FIG. 1, or just left in the cap as shown in FIG. 4.

Subsequently, an ash step is used to remove the resist layer and antireflective coating layers if present, and also to optionally damage the dielectric pillars in between the transfer patterns The demethylation of the dielectric pillars may be necessary if the underlying dielectric is an organosilicate material such as a dense or porous, spin-on or chemical vapor deposition (CVD), SiCOH based material. The next step involves the use of any known etchant, such as but not limited to wet etchants such as dilute hydrofluoric acid (DHF) or ammonium hydroxide based etchants, to either remove the dielectric pillars, or to completely etch out the dielectric depending on whether the pattern is transferred from the cap into the dielectric or not, to leave behind a completely evacuated gap. The wet etchant can also be used to remove any resputtered copper should the perforations still accidentally intersect the copper. The etchant may also be vapor based or CO₂ based.

Prior to the deposition of the next level dielectric, an optional flash deposition of the cap dielectric may be employed should there be any exposed copper during the etchback.

The gap is sealed to leave behind a full airgap in between the interconnect wires by the deposition of the subsequent level dielectric.

In order to ensure that there is absolutely no exposed copper during the etch and ash steps, sub-lithographic perforations can also be employed as described below.

In a second embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 4 in 3 a, 4 a and 5 a, after lithography using the blackout mask, a chemically assisted shrink process that is well known in the art can be employed to shrink perforation size in the resist used for the lithography such that the minimum perforation size is far smaller than the space in between the interconnect wires and is small enough such that even when the overlay tolerance and the interconnect chemical deposition are at the upper end of the specifications for the technology, there is no danger that the perforations will intersect the copper.

In a third embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 4 in 3 b, 4 b and 5 b, a similar effect can be achieved in place of the chemically assisted shrink process by depositing a very thin, conformal layer such that the gap CD is reduced. The conformal layer may be deposited by CVD, atomic layer deposition (ALD), spin-on or any known method in the art. A conformal, thin, low temperature oxide layer may be deposited such that the perforation openings are reduced by the thickness of the oxide layer. The oxide layer can be about 5 nm to about 25 nm thick such that if, for example, the initial perforations are 75 nm in diameter, the diameter is reduced to about 65 nm to about 25 nm respectively thus ensuring that the perforation sizes are sub-lithographic. The bottom of the conformal layer is removed at the beginning of the etchback step and the rest of the layer can be removed during the ash step and the wet etch step.

In a further embodiment, the perforation size can be reduced either by silylation or the deposition of self assembled monolayers (SAMS), such as by employing long chain polymeric siloxanes if silylation is employed or by using long aliphatic or aromatic chain SAMS.

A further embodiment of the invention includes imprint lithography to produce sub-lithographic perforations placed in between the copper wires. These perforations are produced in an imprintable layer which is coated on top of the cap and is used in place of the conventional resist and antireflective coating layer.

While not being bound by theory, the present invention's use of sub-spacing and/or sublithographic gap perforation openings allows isotropic etch extraction of interlayer dielectric material to gap widths larger than the mask perforation openings. This improves gap size versus pinchoff size and allows for lower capacitances. Further, by appropriately choosing the interlayer dielectric and the etchant, and by employing interlayer dielectric modification (“damage”) mechanisms, it is possible to transfer the perforation pattern only partially or minimally through the cap, and then enlarge the perforations in the interlayer dielectric underneath the cap by isotropic etching using a selective wet or SC CO₂ based etchant or vapor etchant.

The resulting inventive wafer contains airgaps which are ordered in the macro level and the micro level, that is they are ordered throughout the levels of dielectric material and the airgaps contain no distinguishable changes in orientation of these ordered regions.

The inventive method is streamlined having fewer masking and etching steps per wiring level than the known methods, while still ensuring that the airgaps can be made at thin wire levels which are close to the transistor as well as “fat” wires which reside at the upper levels of the interconnect scheme in a hierarchical structure.

The present invention leads to suitable combinations of wire-level scaling, image and overlay tolerances, mask resolution, airgap perforation sizes, and borders on perforation placement. All of the copper shapes may be protected by block out shapes as only the spaces between the copper are exposed for the pattern transfer for worst-case tolerance deviations. Thus, the present invention limits exposed copper during etching and in some cases eliminates it. Further, any limited exposed copper during etching is not exposed along the entire length of the interconnect wire.

In order to facilitate easy pinch-off and minimize dielectric redeposition within the gaps, specific gap etch patterns are defined which have at least one dimension smaller than the interline spacing. The present invention further lifts limits on the maximum scale size for gaps below wiring trenches, where, for example, a diblock scheme with limited perforation diameter might start to fail at the largest desired wiring level scales. In addition, the pinch-off heights of the present invention are limited such that the trench bottoms from the subsequent level do not intersect the pinch-off gaps.

The airgap structure of the present invention exhibits no build-up of topography after the subsequent level dielectric deposition.

The air gap structure of the present invention also includes a compressive film at every level to interrupt the build up of the gaps and tensile stress areas.

In addition, the present inventive method results in an airgap depth not limited by limitations of etch due to high aspect ratios. The inventive method does not limit the depth to which the dielectric can be demethylated and thus rendered etchable.

The structure and method of the present invention is further illustrated by the following non-limiting examples.

Example 1

The desired interlevel dielectric on a semiconductor substrate was processed through a standard dual damascene scheme all the way to the deposition of the post-chemically-mechanically polished cap or thin hardmask. Following this, an antireflective coating and a standard 193 or 248 nm resist layer was coated on to the cap layer. A blockout mask, with perforations at least 50 nm or larger, was employed to print openings into the resist layer. Subsequently, the openings were transferred into the cap layer only. DHF was used as an etchant to etch out and remove the dielectric underneath the cap and leave behind a complete gap beneath a perforated cap. Finally, the openings in the cap were pinched-off during the deposition of the next level dielectric with very short pinch-off heights that are on the order of the perforation sizes and little or no topography at the top of the dielectric.

Example 2

The desired interlevel dielectric on a semiconductor substrate was processed through a standard dual damascene scheme all the way to the deposition of the post-chemically-mechanically polished cap or thin hardmask. An antireflective coating and a standard 193 or 248 nm resist layer is coated on to the cap layer. A blockout mask with perforations that are at least 50 nm or larger is employed to print openings into the resist layer. The openings are transferred into and through the cap layer and into the underlying dielectric such that the openings are at least as deep as, or, preferably at least 25% deeper than the height of the interconnect wire. An oxidizing ash step is employed to remove the resist and further demethylate the remaining dielectric pillars if necessary. DHF is used as an etchant to remove the dielectric pillars underneath the cap and leave behind a complete gap beneath a perforated cap. Finally, the openings in the cap are pinched-off during the deposition of the next level dielectric with very short pinch-off heights that are on the order of the perforation sizes and little or no topography at the top of the dielectric.

Example 3

The desired interlevel dielectric on a semiconductor substrate was processed through a standard dual damascene scheme all the way to the deposition of the post-chemically-mechanically polished cap or thin hardmask. An antireflective coating and a standard 193 or 248 nm resist layer is coated on to the cap layer. A blockout mask with perforations that are at least 50 nm or larger is employed to print openings into the resist layer. A conformal, thin, low temperature oxide layer is deposited such that the perforation openings are reduced by the thickness of the oxide layer. The oxide layer can be about 5 nm to 25 nm thick such that if the initial perforations are 75 nm in diameter, the diameter is reduced to about 65 to 25 nm respectively thus ensuring that the perforation sizes are sub-lithographic.

The openings are transferred into and through the cap layer and into the underlying dielectric such that the openings are at least as deep as, or, preferably at least 25% deeper than the height of the interconnect wire. An oxidizing ash step is employed to remove the resist layer as well as the oxide layer that reduces the perforation openings, and also to further demethylate the remaining dielectric pillars if necessary. DHF is used as an etchant to remove the dielectric pillars underneath the cap and leave behind a complete gap beneath a perforated cap. The openings in the cap are then pinched-off during the deposition of the next level dielectric with very short pinch-off heights that are on the order of the perforation sizes and little or no topography at the top of the dielectric.

The invention has been described in terms of embodiments thereof, but is more broadly applicable as will be understood by those skilled in the art. The scope of the invention is only limited by the following claims. 

1. A wafer containing an interconnect structure with airgaps comprising: a) a substrate having at least one dielectric cap layer on the substrate, and at least two copper interconnects with a top layer and with spaces between the copper interconnects; and b) multiple sublithographic perforations in the cap layer on top of the interconnect and which overlay the spaces between the copper interconnects and not overlying the copper interconnects, wherein the perforations are ordered throughout the wafer with no change in order orientation and the top layer of the copper interconnects are not exposed.
 2. The structure of claim 1 wherein the perforations are supra lithographic.
 3. The structure of claim 1 wherein the perforations in the cap layer are pinched off with multiple and discrete pinch-points within a given space between the copper interconnects and having pinch-off heights that are on order of the perforations.
 4. The structure of claim 1 wherein the perforations are at least as small as the minimum distance between the copper interconnects.
 5. The structure of claim 1 wherein the perforations are smaller than the minimum distance between the copper interconnects.
 6. The structure of claim 1 wherein the perforations exceeds the depth of the copper interconnects.
 7. The structure of claim 6 wherein the depth of the transferred perforations in the dielectric layer is at least 25% deeper than the depth of the copper interconnects.
 8. The structure of claim 1 wherein perforation size is reduced by silyation.
 9. The structure of claim 1 wherein perforation size is reduced by the deposition of a self assembled monolayer.
 10. The structure of claim 1 further comprising a resist layer on the cap layer having multiple perforations wherein the perforation size in the resist layer is reduced using chemically assisted shrinks.
 11. The structure of claim 1 further comprising a conformal layer which is about 5 nm to about 25 nm thick.
 12. The structure of claim 1 further comprising a self assembled monolayer on top of the cap layer and wherein the self assembled monolayer is a long chain aliphatic compound.
 13. The structure of claim 12 wherein the self assembled monolayer is a long chain aromatic compound.
 14. The structure of claim 12 wherein the self assembled monolayer is a long chain aliphatic compound.
 15. The structure of claim 1 further comprising an at least second cap layer.
 16. The structure of claim 15 wherein the at least second cap layer is deposited via flash deposition, wherein the second cap layer protects any exposed copper during pinching-off and wherein the perforations are pinched off by the deposition of the second cap layer.
 17. The structure of claim 1 further comprising a second dielectric layer.
 18. The structure of claim 1 further comprising a compressive film at every level to interrupt the build up of the air gaps and tensile stress areas.
 19. A wafer containing an interconnect structure with airgaps comprising: a) a substrate having at least one dielectric cap layer on the substrate, and multiple copper interconnects each with a top layer and with spaces between the copper interconnects; and b) multiple sublithographic perforations in the cap layer on top of the interconnect and which overlay the spaces between the copper interconnects and not overlying the copper interconnects and wherein the perforations are smaller than the minimum distance between the copper interconnects, wherein the perforations are ordered throughout the wafer in a macro level and a micro level with no change in order orientation and the top layer of the copper interconnects are not exposed.
 20. A wafer containing an interconnect structure with airgaps comprising: a) a substrate having at least one dielectric cap layer on the substrate, and multiple copper interconnects each with a top layer and with spaces between the copper interconnects; b) a conformal layer which is about 5 nm to about 25 nm thick; c) a second dielectric layer; and d) multiple sublithographic perforations in the cap layer on top of the interconnect and which overlay the spaces between the copper interconnects and not overlying the copper interconnects and wherein the perforations are at least as deep as a height of the copper interconnects, wherein the perforations are ordered throughout the wafer in a macro level and a micro level with no change in order orientation and the top layer of the copper interconnects are not exposed. 